Prediction of structural responses induced by single-person jumping through a physical principle based on transfer functions

Abstract

The vibration caused by human excitation has become a key factor at the structural design stage of large-span structures including footbridges, sport stadia, and high-rise buildings. As the structures tend to become slenderer and lighter, the mass of the crowd is not negligibly small compared with the mass of the structure. In such cases, the crowd and the structure form a coupling system through a mechanism known as human–structure interaction (HSI). Researchers found that the structural responses with and without HSI are different. However, the interaction effect on the structural responses has rarely been quantitatively evaluated from the perspective of human system parameters. In this paper, a novel method using a physical principle to predict jumping-induced structural responses is proposed, in which the structural response is expressed as the multiplication of a series of transfer functions representing human system and structural dynamic properties. Structural responses of a large-span concrete structure under jumping excitation are predicted using the proposed method and identified human system parameters. Comparison with measured responses shows satisfactory agreement. The proposed method provides a solution to consider HSI effect on the calculation of structural responses in the vibration serviceability design for large-span structures.